Construction Contracts Within the Framework of PPP / Concession Projects - A Legal Overview (From a Greek Law Perspective)

Areti Roditi, Senior Legal Counsel, J&P-AVAX SA, Greece

Under a typical PPP (Public – Private Partnership) structure , the Awarding Authority / Grantor (“the Grantor”) executes the Project Agreement with the Project Company, which is a Special Purpose Company (SPC) consisting of the members of the Successful Tenderer (hereinafter referred to as the “SPC” or the “Project Company”). By virtue of the Project Agreement, the SPC undertakes all rights and obligations in relation to the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the Project in accordance with the terms of the Project Agreement. When the project is a “concession” , the main consideration of the SPC consists in the right of exploitation of the Project, namely in the right to charge end users for the use of the project (e.g. in toll motorways). In other PPP structures, the SPC receives annual payments (availability payments) from the Grantor which are linked to the availability of the project and achievement by the SPC of certain performance standards, however the majority of risks lies with the SPC. For instance, in case of failure to meet certain standards (as these are set out in the Project Agreement), the SPC suffers performance deductions.

Areti Roditi

Areti Roditi studied law at the University of Athens (LLB in Law, 1997) She has an LLM in Civil Law (University of Athens, 1999) as well as an LLM in European Legal Studies (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium 2000).
Areti Roditi successfully completed a Msc in Business for Lawyers in 2007 (ALBA Graduate Business School, Athens).
She is fluent in Greek (native), English, French, German and Spanish and has a knowledge of Russian and Arabic.
A qualified Greek lawyer, member of the Athens Bar Association since 1999.
Currently she is working as a senior lawyer in the PPPs and Facilities Management Department of J&P-AVAX since 2004 and in that capacity has been involved in a significant number of PPP projects in Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Jordan and UAE.